Arenas: Last Could Be 'For The Better' For Wizards

[duncan228]

Arenas: Last could be 'for the better' for Wizards (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=Avjb7d_S_xdFd.pvabvamIe8vLYF?slug=ap-wizards-arenas&prov=ap&type=lgns)


...that's what happened to San Antonio and that's how they got Tim Duncan and look at them now ... and that's for the better.

[dirk4mvp]

So Arenas has been faking the injury the whole time?

[Bob Lanier]

Arenas is like a more self-absorbed, less talented Bill Walton.

[jack sommerset]

So the 100 million dollar man wants to tank like the Spews did.Pathetic. They ought to throw every non playoff team in the ping pong machine once every season and end this shit.

[angelbelow]

he didnt say anything wrong, he just said that he hates seeing his team like this, but if there is a silver lining its getting draft pick. sounds like a realist to me.

[Kamnik]

he didnt say anything wrong, he just said that he hates seeing his team like this, but if there is a silver lining its getting draft pick. sounds like a realist to me.

+1

[Stump]

Maybe they can get Ricky Rubio so they can finally rid themselves of Arenas.

[duncan228]

Seeing some responses to Arenas.

Nine games in? Too early to wax philosophical about lottery (http://www.sportsline.com/columns/story/11122916)
By Ray Ratto
CBSSports.com Columnist

The Chicago Blackhawks fired coach Denis Savard after four games. The Tampa Bay Lightning axed coach Barry Melrose after 16 games. Clearly, these are two teams that clearly didn't understand the upside of losing.

Gilbert Arenas does. Of course he does.

"I don't want to see them struggle," the glorious Washington Wizard of many names said Thursday while, aptly, his wax figure was being unveiled at Madame Tussauds, "but if this is one of those years where we don't make the playoffs or we finish in last place ... that's what happened to San Antonio and that's how they got Tim Duncan and look at them now ... and that's for the better."

Well, then, all is absolved. One ninth of your season is shot, so it's time to tank.

With all due fairness to Agent Zero, he does have a point. If you're going to stink, stink big. There is nothing worse than a team that goes 29-53, not even a team that goes 28-54.

And we doubt that he is actually suggesting what he seems to be suggesting -- that the Wizards go 12-70 on purpose. We suspect it just came out kind of skewed.

But only kind of, because Arenas is also nobody's dunce. He was saying that losing is OK if it gets you a great player, which is true if there is a great player out there to be had.

And no, I don't think it's Tyler Hansbrough, either.

But here's the kicker: To announce that stinking out the joint on a nightly basis is not necessarily a bad thing, and in doing so implying that tanking a few along the way would make it better still, is one thing. Not to have the patience to wait past your 10 game to do it, though ... weird. Just weird.

There is a time and place for such thinking, and traditionally that time has come after the halfway point of the season -- not the halfway point of November. It is hard to keep people involved in the ticket-buying portion of the scam if you have employees already talking about the season being lost.

And while we don't want to stifle Arenas' creativity or eagerness to speak, he is in a different category than, say, Charles Barkley. Barkley could bag on the Wizards for the entirety of his show and we would find it potentially insightful and undeniably hilarious. Arenas is an employee, and in fact the most important Wizards employee of them all. Plus, he is coming back in January from his third knee surgery in a year-and-a-half, and we assume he doesn't want people to think the season is over then, does he?

In short, all we are suggesting here is that there is a time and place and a method for suggesting that the season is crisp on the outside and moist and tender on the inside. The time: no earlier than Valentine's Day. The place: when there is no hope of escaping. The method: Well, Arenas was more open about it than most. Usually, there is no method for saying, "The bad news is, we stink. The good news is, we'll be good on the night of the lottery."

That last one, frankly, is better as the province of newspaper snots, Internet wisenheimers and radio drones. It gives them the illusion of knowing something, while allowing the team members to complain publicly that they are being disrespected. They love to do that, and even though nobody listens to them when they say it any more, they like to haul it out, especially after they've won a championship that most people thought they could win anyway.

But we are getting far afield from the central point here, which is this: Gilbert my man, finding the good in 1-8 is noble but misguided. Projecting that 1-8 is indicative of your team's future is kind of a downer. And using the Tim Duncan example presumes facts not in evidence, like whether there is a Tim Duncan out there, and implies that the tankings will commence soon, which will make Davis Stern's head hurt.

Other than that, everything is cool. Hope you look like you in the museum.